Keukenhof - The Garden of Europe

Every spring is the only spring - a perpetual astonishment. ― Ellis Peters

Millions of Blooms

Last week we visited Keukenhof, a garden with history & devotion in Lisse. Filled with more than seven million tulips, hyacinths (their fragrance is purely wonderful), daffodils and so many other plants that blossom only in Spring throughout Keukenhof’s 32 hectares. For that reason this park only opens between March and May. And even then it is always tough to be accurate to determine the sprouting days because the flowers will sprout a little bit earlier or later each given year depending on the weather. During our way we could observe the colorful fields with blue, white, purple, red, yellow... as if they had extended gigantic striped carpets on the ground spreading until the horizon, just wonderful!

It was a sunny day, the light was a little harsh and the gardens filled with thousands of tourists, especially in the afternoon, either way we enjoyed the gardens and took a look at their pavilions. My favorite was the Willem-Alexander where I saw the most beautiful tulips. There’s also a lovely little petting zoo with some friendly piglets, goats and sheep. After we cuddled some of them we entered in a maze whose final point goes to a wooden viewpoint over the bulb fields. The nearest fields were still without flowers or only with the sprouts, but from a distance we could see the tulips as enormous strokes of red and yellow.